India needs many Padmans, period

| | in Oped

It’s sad that deep-seated taboos about menstruation still persist. All stakeholders, including the Government, must get their act together to break this culture

On May 28, the World Menstrual Hygiene Day, many of us were reminded of Laxmikant, the loving husband of Gayatri in Padman, released early this year. Laxmikant is miffed that his wife is using an unhygienic cloth during her periods and that drives him to create a machine that makes affordable sanitary pads. Akshay Kumar, who played the lead role and noted Bollywood director R Balki, deserve great applause for bringing to the fore a very critical subject of menstrual hygiene into the mainstream of public discourse. This is critical given that according to an estimate, a staggering 23 million girls in India drop out of school annually due to lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities, including non-availability of sanitary napkins and awareness about menstruation.

Days before the film hit the screens, the Government of India launched a visionary Stree Swabhiman scheme with an aim to create a sustainable model for providing adolescent girls and women access to affordable sanitary products by leveraging Common Service Centres (CSC) in rural areas. Under the project, sanitary napkin micro manufacturing units have been set up at CSCs across India, particularly those operated by women entrepreneurs. “The initiative is driven by awareness and personalised outreach by women entrepreneurs who produce and market sanitary napkins themselves,” an official release said.

This was a significant initiative given the taboos and myths associated with menstruation in the Indian society. Adolescent girls in the country do not have the right to question restrictions imposed on them during menstruation. Curbs on food, entering the kitchen, praying or even sharing the bed with the husband, are unchallenged traditions being followed religiously since unknown times. This happens in a society where puberty is celebrated on the one hand and on the other, if a woman does not prove her fertility after marriage, she is questioned.  Ironically, when a woman is undergoing the biological process, critical for her fertility, she is considered ‘impure’ and kept away from everything which is otherwise expected to be her domain.  

A report by Dasra, a Mumbai-based organisation, published in 2014, came up with some startling facts. It said 70 per cent of the mothers with menstruating daughters considered menstruation as dirty and 71 per cent adolescent girls were often unaware of menstruation till menarche. According to a 2014 UNICEF report, in Tamil Nadu, 79 per cent girls and women were unaware about menstrual hygiene practices. The percentage was 66 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 56 per cent in Rajasthan and 51 per cent in West Bengal. Understanding menstruation and menstrual hygiene management is a problem for adolescent girls in India, particularly when she is in school. Poor water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools, inadequate puberty education and lack of hygienic absorbents cause girls to experience menstruation as shameful and uncomfortable.

That menstruation is closely linked to a girl's attendance in school is well-known but what has not been given enough thought is the fact that just one sanitary pad per day for a menstruating girl is enough to keep her in school. One sanitary pad may not be the answer to the issue that keeps girls away from school when they start with their periods but it offers some hope. One sanitary pad, on an average, lasts for about eight hours which is just about the time a girl spends in school. Many girl students would be able to manage school if they have access to one sanitary pad, even without a functional washroom, water and facilities for disposal. Ideally, there should be separate toilets for girls and boys which should be functional and have running water as well as provision for the disposal of used sanitary pads.

Considering this, UNICEF and Stayfree communication tool ‘Paheli ki Saheli’, designed to improve menstrual health and hygiene management among adolescent girls, is a welcome move. It is an effective communication tool for mothers and teachers and has shown promising results during pilot runs in Bihar and Jharkhand, where 74 per cent and 76 per cent girls are using sanitary pads and cloth now, up from 50 per cent and 46 per cent respectively, after the implementation of the programme. It also brought about a significant change in menstrual hygiene and better disposal practices. Access to sanitary pads, information and knowledge on menstrual hygiene showed an immediate impact on school attendance as 97 per cent approved of attending school during menstruation. All these endeavours will go a long way in getting the society rid of a huge taboo and a string of myths associated with it. We need consistent reiteration through mass awareness programmes. We need all stakeholders, including the Government and civil society groups, to work in tandem towards this. And we need many more Padmans in India.

(The writer is a strategic communications professional)